There is not one country in this world that I have traveled more than France. But the South of France and the Provence has been sitting on the top of my traveling list for quite some time now. So this summer Philipp and I spent a week roadtripping the Côte d'Azur and traveled from Nice to Avignon. We stayed in two nice Air Bnbs, one in Chateauneuf-Grasse and one in Aix en Provence.
First stop: the French supermarket. There is no place on earth that I love more. No I am kidding, but I really love shopping for food and good wine and in that case the French just do it best. 2018 seems to be the year of rosé and since that is my favorite anyways we bought a few bottles throughout the trip.
Second on the agenda was Foundation Maeght (Marguerite and Aimée Maeght are the founders, you could compare them to the Guggenheims, they startet out as art collectors and ended up supporting many artists and providing them with a platform to showcase their work) where we got to see work by Joan Miro, Marc Chagall, George Braque, Giacometti and many more. The view up there is insanely beautiful and there is so much to see and explore.
Close to the Foundation Maeght sits the cute little mountain city Saint-Paul-de-Vence that we just could not skip. Even tough it is a really nice place to visit it is also packed with other tourist and parking was very difficult and expensive. Next up was Cannes which is so so lovely. We walked up the hill and received a nice view of the Côte d'Azur and also Cannes itself.
Then we headed west and visited Aix en Provence and Avignon. In Avignon we mainly visited the Palace of the Pope and had a nice afternoon swim in the bay of Cassis. Last but not least we explored Aix en Provence and really loved it. For me it was shopping paradise and also home to great artists ( Cézanne only to name the most important). Shopping in Aix was a cool experience. You will find the same shops as you do in Paris but with a really nice provencal flair to it. A must for me in France are the pharmacies where I bought a deodorant by Avène. Furthermore I discovered two labels that I need share.
Oysho is a Spanish label that I could not skip. The mostly sell athleisure, workout gear and underwear. I ended up buying two pairs of workout pants. I like the colors, the patterns and the fabric feels nice. And secondly I discovered Bastide. Forget Fragonard. Bastide is the place to shop luxury soap. I could have bought a lot more but we were traveling with hand luggage only so I decided to keep it simple. I went for the Miel de Lavande (lavender honey) and it smells so so so good! The packaging and everything else at this store gave me everything I was expecting from a soap shop in Provence.
Streets of Aix.
In front of Bastide.
What I bought in France.
Lavender honey soap.
Oysho workout pants.
Me in the streets of Aix en Provence.
